Bake-A-Rella

You could say that yesterday was spent in rehearsal mode for Have the Cake. Today is Sofia’s birthday, and with Todd’s help I whipped up about 50 cupcakes and a cake. The experience was not quite as smooth as I would have hoped:

The first six vanilla cupcakes look like exactly what they are because I forgot to add the food coloring to make them pink. After adding the coloring for the rest, the batter looked pinkalicious, but when the finished products came out of the oven they were back to their original vanilla appearance again. I didn’t break one open to see if it was pink inside, so I’m just hoping they are.

I had grand plans for all the fancy-pants ways I was going to decorate everything, but hit a couple of roadblocks. I made homemade icing using a recipe I’ve never worked with before and learned rather quickly that there was a small window of opportunity where the icing was soft enough to actually squeeze out of the piping bag but not so soft that it instantly became an ugly, messy blob. Also, in a perfect you-get-what-you-pay-for life lesson, it turns out my Target-purchased, four-dollar cake decorating kit was a nightmare. The bags that came with the kit were impossible to use, and Todd had to make an emergency run to the corner store for some gallon ziplock bags so we could get all Martha Stewart on its ass and improvise a work around.

In the midst of this I decided that five year olds don’t care about how lovely a cupcake is to behold as long as there is plenty of sugar involved. So many of the camp-bound cupcakes are simply slathered with icing and topped with sprinkles. I suspect this will go over just fine.

Sofia and Dylan were at our place when it came time to decorate the cake, and Sofia joined in to help. I knew it would be more fun with her involved, and in some ways it took the pressure off. On my own, I’d have tried to create a beautiful, sassy yet sophisticated cake, and I probably would never have been satisfied with what I created. Once she began art directing, though, my vision went out the window, and the final product has, well, let’s call it a five-year-old sensibility. There’s a lot happening, and Sofia was creative enough to think of a way to use just about every last drop of icing. I was ready to quit several elements before we did, but she felt that as long as there was icing in the piping bag we had an obligation to find a place for it on the cake. You won’t find this design in any bakeries, but she seemed happy and that’s what it’s all about.

Growing up, my Mom made some of the most amazing birthday cakes I’ve ever seen. Working at Ben & Jerry’s in high school I became a pretty good cake decorator in my own right. I went into this thinking that I’d do great: it was in my genes, and I have experience, after all. I learned quickly that I’m missing some key tools that would make it much easier, and I’m quite out of practice.

One of the prettier cupcakes

Cupcakes as far as the eye can see

Sofia's birthday cake

My apprentice with her creation